The satellite broadcaster, one of the nation's biggest pay-TV distributors with over 20 million subscribers, stopped carrying the Weather Channel as of midnight eastern standard time after the two companies couldn't come to terms on a new distribution deal.

"We offered DirecTV the best rate for our programming, and I'm shocked they have put corporate profits ahead of keeping a trusted channel that subscribers rely on every day," said Weather Channel Chief Executive David Kenny. "We are not looking for a large fee increase."

Last week, the Weather Channel encouraged its viewers to contact their member of Congress and senators to complain about DirecTV's expected dropping of the channel.

"Given the increasing frequency and severity of weather-related emergencies across the country, access to timely and accurate weather information is imperative for public safety and, therefore, an issue meriting congressional attention," the network said.

"Consumers understand there are now a variety of other ways to get weather coverage free of reality show clutter, and that the Weather Channel does not have an exclusive on weather coverage – the weather belongs to everyone," said Dan York, DirecTV's chief content officer

The Weather Channel has indicated it is only seeking an increase of a penny per-subscriber, per-month.

A DirecTV spokesman said the new contract being sought by the Weather Channel is "substantially more than that."

According to industry consulting firm SNL Kagan, the average fee for the Weather Channel is 13 cents per-subscriber, per-month. However, since DirecTV is such a large distributor, its rate is actually lower than that.

DirecTV also said that its subscribers are concerned about the amount of non-weather programs on the network. Over the last few years, as part of an effort to broaden its audience, the Weather Channel has started to program reality shows about weather-related professions.

"Given the increasing frequency and severity of weather-related emergencies across the country, access to timely and accurate weather information is imperative for public safety and, therefore, an issue meriting congressional attention," the network said.

"We have heard from an overwhelming majority of our customers that they want a weather service that's 24/7, not one that's preempted by reality programming 40% of the time," DirecTV has said.

In anticipation of dropping the network, DirecTV recently added WeatherNation, a smaller network that also caters to weather enthusiasts but lacks the audience or stature of the Weather Channel. It now occupies the slot that had been home to the Weather Channel.

"They are trading safety for increased profits and replacing the experience and expertise of the Weather Channel with a cheap startup that does weather forecasting on a three-hour taped loop, has no field coverage, no weather experts ... and no experience in severe weather emergencies," Kenny said of DirecTV's decision to carry WeatherNation.

DirecTV has previously noted that besides WeatherNation, it also carries 1,600 local TV stations, most of which carry local news and weather coverage and that it also has its own emergency channels.

The dispute between Weather Channel and DirecTV has encouraged another weather company -- AccuWeather -- to unveil its own plans to launch a channel. AccuWeather, which provides forecasts for TV, radio, newspapers and digital platforms, said its channel will debut in the third quarter of this year.

Such feuds between programmers and distributors have become commonplace. DirecTV has already said it is raising rates this year in part because of increased programming costs. Many networks, especially those that have lots of sports, are charging distributors more to carry their channels. That has led many distributors to get more aggressive with other networks it feels it can risk losing without too great a backlash from subscribers.

"We would prefer to continue carrying Weather Channel, but only at a value that makes sense for DirecTV customers," DirecTV said.

Re: DirecTV drops Weather Channel.

"Last week, the Weather Channel encouraged its viewers to contact their member of Congress and senators to complain about DirecTV's expected dropping of the channel."

Really TWC? You're ratings are dropping, you are mostly reality shows now and you want subscribers to contact Congress? What are they going to do, it's not like it's a government owned station yet. There is nothing on your channel that is that important.

” Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports … all others are games.”- Ernest Hemingway

Re: DirecTV drops Weather Channel.

oufanindallas wrote:

"Last week, the Weather Channel encouraged its viewers to contact their member of Congress and senators to complain about DirecTV's expected dropping of the channel."

Really TWC? You're ratings are dropping, you are mostly reality shows now and you want subscribers to contact Congress? What are they going to do, it's not like it's a government owned station yet. There is nothing on your channel that is that important.

C-SPAN offers more to the US public than TWC.

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Re: DirecTV drops Weather Channel.

"Last week, the Weather Channel encouraged its viewers to contact their member of Congress and senators to complain about DirecTV's expected dropping of the channel."

Really TWC? You're ratings are dropping, you are mostly reality shows now and you want subscribers to contact Congress? What are they going to do, it's not like it's a government owned station yet. There is nothing on your channel that is that important.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Re: DirecTV drops Weather Channel.

I love this quote from the head of TWC:

""At a time whenDIRECTVhas increased customer rates by 4 percent, they are trading safety for increased profits and replacing the experience and expertise of The Weather Channel with a cheap startup that does weather forecasting on a three-hour taped loop, has no field coverage, no weather experts — certainly not any on par with The Weather Channel network's industry-recognized experts like tornado expertDr. Greg Forbesand winter weather expert Tom Niziol — and no experience in severe weather emergencies. This is a dangerous gamble over one penny a month that puts DIRECTV customers at risk."

Let's see, I live in Dallas and I grew up in Oklahoma. I've watched a couple of reports from their "tornado expert" and found him to be rather ill informed.

Besides, if the weather is that severe, I can almost guarantee that DTV subscribers are unable to watch their tv because they won't have satellite coverage. I was lucky in that the first two apartments I lived in when I moved to Dallas had free basic cable included in the rent and I was able to watch my local news when the weather was severe. If I had to rely on DTV (Dish and Direct as I've had both) then I would have been up a creek a couple of time when tornados were in my area.

” Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports … all others are games.”- Ernest Hemingway

Re: DirecTV drops Weather Channel.

oufanindallas wrote:

I love this quote from the head of TWC:

""At a time whenDIRECTVhas increased customer rates by 4 percent, they are trading safety for increased profits and replacing the experience and expertise of The Weather Channel with a cheap startup that does weather forecasting on a three-hour taped loop, has no field coverage, no weather experts — certainly not any on par with The Weather Channel network's industry-recognized experts like tornado expertDr. Greg Forbesand winter weather expert Tom Niziol — and no experience in severe weather emergencies. This is a dangerous gamble over one penny a month that puts DIRECTV customers at risk."

Let's see, I live in Dallas and I grew up in Oklahoma. I've watched a couple of reports from their "tornado expert" and found him to be rather ill informed.

Besides, if the weather is that severe, I can almost guarantee that DTV subscribers are unable to watch their tv because they won't have satellite coverage. I was lucky in that the first two apartments I lived in when I moved to Dallas had free basic cable included in the rent and I was able to watch my local news when the weather was severe. If I had to rely on DTV (Dish and Direct as I've had both) then I would have been up a creek a couple of time when tornados were in my area.

LOL!!!

Employee Contributor*

*I am an AT&T employee and the postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent AT&T's position, strategies or opinions.

Re: DirecTV drops Weather Channel.

TWC is now taking their whining to Social Media.\

This is from Dr. Forbes, who's TORCON forecasts I respect. He talks about the reality shows on TWC. Interesting.:

I feel bad but also encouraged that a lot of you are angry that DirecTV dropped The Weather Channel. It seems like only you subscribers (and people cancelling DirecTV) can change the situation. I'm not part of The Weather Channel management, but I do know that they are also aware of the comments that you've made expressing frustration with the long-form "reality" shows that we air. I think that you'll gradually see some scaling back of those. As you've seen, we've alrea...dy been doing a lot of cancelling of those shows when the weather is very active, and we'll continue to do that. In addition, we are planning to do some split-feed broadcasting, where quiet areas can watch those shows while we broadcast live to the active area(s). What management has also seen, though, is that on days when the weather is quiet those shows get much better ratings than our regular weather coverage, so that's why TWC runs them. Thanks for understanding. Stick with us while we continue to bring you the information you need and improve in doing that. We want to be there for you, particularly during threatening weather.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Re: DirecTV drops Weather Channel.

oufanindallas wrote:

I love this quote from the head of TWC:

""At a time whenDIRECTVhas increased customer rates by 4 percent, they are trading safety for increased profits and replacing the experience and expertise of The Weather Channel with a cheap startup that does weather forecasting on a three-hour taped loop, has no field coverage, no weather experts — certainly not any on par with The Weather Channel network's industry-recognized experts like tornado expertDr. Greg Forbesand winter weather expert Tom Niziol — and no experience in severe weather emergencies. This is a dangerous gamble over one penny a month that puts DIRECTV customers at risk."

Let's see, I live in Dallas and I grew up in Oklahoma. I've watched a couple of reports from their "tornado expert" and found him to be rather ill informed.

Besides, if the weather is that severe, I can almost guarantee that DTV subscribers are unable to watch their tv because they won't have satellite coverage. I was lucky in that the first two apartments I lived in when I moved to Dallas had free basic cable included in the rent and I was able to watch my local news when the weather was severe. If I had to rely on DTV (Dish and Direct as I've had both) then I would have been up a creek a couple of time when tornados were in my area.

You know that right there is a great reason why TWC statement that they're putting people in danger is a bad one.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall at DTV and see how many people are canceling their service due to the Weather Channel no longer being on the air there.

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Resident Xbox ACE. Ask me almost anything about Xbox on U-Verse.

Xbox Gamertag: americangamePSN: americangameSteam:americangameWhen friending me mention that you found me on the AT&T forums.

Re: DirecTV drops Weather Channel.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Re: DirecTV drops Weather Channel.

No one will leave Directv over this, if anything this shouldnt effect anyone as they have a replacement 24 hour weather channel now added. If someone left over that then they are just looking for a excuse. I don't think I've watched the weather channel in years (although I'm sure plenty of people still do). With computers, phones, etc. getting weather isnt a problem.

Re: DirecTV drops Weather Channel.

I know we sometimes rag on Hallmark Channel having low ratings for what it is but I don't think I can ever recall Weather Channel being on the cable list ever while we know Hallmark has made it on there a few times.

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Resident Xbox ACE. Ask me almost anything about Xbox on U-Verse.

Xbox Gamertag: americangamePSN: americangameSteam:americangameWhen friending me mention that you found me on the AT&T forums.